You've Got a Friend

I t used to be easy doing business in the old economy. You walked into an actual building, sat down with an actual person and had an actual conversation. Now it's a virtual storefront, clicking keys instead of conversing, closing deals with an electronic handshake. The customers may be coming aboard morre quickly, but without the proper support and service they can just as quickly jump ship.

What steps can you take to maintain customer loyalty in an environment where information is so easily accessed and everyone's products look the same on a screen? The basic steps: Bond with customers, partner with prospects.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a partnership as "two people associated with one another in a common activity; an alliance." Creating that alliance involves more than e-mails, cell phones and Web sites. It involves combining old-economy business practices with new-economy tools.

While the Internet and advanced technology can facilitate account-processing and order-taking at heretofore unseen speeds and levels of accuracy, they cannot and should not replace the personal aspect that is paramount to selling.

What makes a merchant choose one ISO's payment-processing solutions over another may boil down to the basic and often overlooked value-added service of a personal touch, a sincere interest in that merchant's preferences, a smile that can't always be seen but is always heard in the tone of a voice or felt by an unexpected act of friendship.

The following checklist can help you define how much of a partner you are to your customers:

- I always return customer calls the same day. If I can't personally return the calls, I make sure someone else calls them to explain why. - When initiating calls, I first ask if it's a good time for my customer to talk. - I call my customers at least once a month just to say hi. - I keep myself informed about my customers' businesses - i.e., reduced or increased sales volumes, change in inventory, new neighbors, etc. - I keep my customers informed about the latest equipment and services that are relevant to their business. - I encourage my customers to share their opinions and attitudes ... and always take them seriously. - I anticipate my customers' needs and act on them. - I don't oversell products and services. - I know the names of each customer's spouse and children. - I know my customers' birthdays and anniversaries ... and send appropriate greetings on those dates. - I've taken my customers out to lunch, dinner or drinks within the last three months. - I show respect for my customers at all times.